Does anybody care? Good for him for having the balls to come public with it, but its too bad he had too. If youre straight, be straight. If you're gay, be gay. You don't have to announce either one to me.

I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.

I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.

JSeahawks wrote:Does anybody care? Good for him for having the balls to come public with it, but its too bad he had too. If youre straight, be straight. If you're gay, be gay. You don't have to announce either one to me.

I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.

I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.

Nice to see so many fellow players supporting him. Gay people aren't going anywhere, it's time to stop expecting them to hide so that the mentally small people of the world don't have to "feel uncomfortable" with it.

Hawknballs wrote:Nice to see so many fellow players supporting him. Gay people aren't going anywhere, it's time to stop expecting them to hide so that the mentally small people of the world don't have to "feel uncomfortable" with it.

Growing up I heard so many adults say "we are giving up too much" and I wondered what they were talking about. Now that I have kids and am older I understand and can see the trend and where it is leading. The future isn't going to be a pretty place for our children.

There are many things that people used to consider "wrong" that have become "alright". While some of those things may not have been as wrong as others it has changed our quality of life.

A bolt is made for a nut, you can't hold anything together using 2 bolts, or 2 nuts. If your selling one without the other, sorry, but no matter what you say, I ain't buying.

Gay people want acceptance so they can deal with thier guilty consience. We all make choices in life and we all have to live with the consequences. I see no reason why anyone should accept something they consider to be wrong. To me the issue couldn't be any clearer and I find it disturbing reality of the state of our society. Reality people, get there

Last edited by sprhawk on Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hawknballs wrote:Nice to see so many fellow players supporting him. Gay people aren't going anywhere, it's time to stop expecting them to hide so that the mentally small people of the world don't have to "feel uncomfortable" with it.

Growing up I heard so many adults say "we are giving up too much" and I wondered what they were talking about. Now that I have kids and am older I understand and can see the trend and where it is leading. The future isn't going to be a pretty place for our children.

There are many things that people used to consider "wrong" that have become "alright". While some of those things may not have been as wrong as others it has changed our quality of life.

A bolt is made for a nut, you can't hold anything together using 2 bolts, or 2 nuts. If your selling one without the other, sorry, but no matter what you say, I ain't buying.

Gay people want acceptance so they can deal with thier guilty consience. We all make choices in life and we all have to live with the consequences. I see no reason why anyone should accept something they consider to be wrong.

Good for him, and I'm glad he did. It may seem like not that big a deal to people who live on the West Coast, which I think speaks to the progressiveness of the region in general, but leave coastal Washington/Oregon/California and you'd be surprised.

Maybe someday it genuinely won't be an issue and won't need to be announced, but for now, it's a pretty big milestone for professional sports.

12th_Bob wrote:Hmm, according to some post here, an active professional athlete coming out as gay is a big deal to some.

I think it's great, bigots are losing this battle and this 'should' not be a big deal but it is as long as people care about what sexual behavior others practice.

Just like with everything if it doesn't affect you why care right? Nice attitude maybe someday you might care about someone other than yourself. My brother was lured and almost molested by a gay man who tried to get him drunk. My brother introduced him to baseball and the famous Wilson line of bats.

Crazy people are only a little step below gay people imo. Dig a little into any gay person you know and you'll uncover the truth. Almost all of them had a childhood molestation occur. What makes it worse is they become convinced that if they can get others to accept them it will make it better. Sounds like a disease to me.

I hope no one ever has to deal with reality of effed up people but to support them isn't cool.

Last edited by sprhawk on Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

sprhawk wrote:I hope no one ever has to deal with reality of effed up people but to support them isn't cool.

Great, that's why I'm taking your advice and adding you to my ignore list. It's a sad fact that small-minded bigots like you will always exist, but hopefully in another 10 years or so society will have evolved and left you as the small fringe minority you deserve to be.

I'm sick of chasing after my dreams. I'm just going to find out where they're headed, and catch up with them later.
- Mitch Hedberg

I say upfront that it is extreme but pedofiles have to live in hiding too and guess what they don't think they are doing anything wrong either.

Yeah but they are, that's the difference. If you've ever seen what that does to a kid you would absolutely know why it is. HUGE, HUGE difference between 2 consenting adults having sex and what a pedophile does. (Child molesters should be executed on their 2nd offense IMO.)

I'm just glad its an NBA player. The NBA is simply BETTER at handling such issues. It's PA, players, ownership everything are light years more progressive than any other sport. It's the ONLY professional sport without instituionalized racism. MLB, NFL, NHL, Soccer all have loads of juicy racism that can be seen.

Hawknballs wrote:Nice to see so many fellow players supporting him. Gay people aren't going anywhere, it's time to stop expecting them to hide so that the mentally small people of the world don't have to "feel uncomfortable" with it.

Growing up I heard so many adults say "we are giving up too much" and I wondered what they were talking about. Now that I have kids and am older I understand and can see the trend and where it is leading. The future isn't going to be a pretty place for our children.

There are many things that people used to consider "wrong" that have become "alright". While some of those things may not have been as wrong as others it has changed our quality of life.

A bolt is made for a nut, you can't hold anything together using 2 bolts, or 2 nuts. If your selling one without the other, sorry, but no matter what you say, I ain't buying.

Gay people want acceptance so they can deal with thier guilty consience. We all make choices in life and we all have to live with the consequences. I see no reason why anyone should accept something they consider to be wrong. To me the issue couldn't be any clearer and I find it disturbing reality of the state of our society. Reality people, get there

It's fine to have conflicting views on these types of high-interest topics, but if you feel the need to openly express your views on the subject, please take it to the PWR forum and keep it out of our sports forums. Thanks.

RockHawk wrote:It's fine to have conflicting views on these types of high-interest topics, but if you feel the need to openly express your views on the subject, please take it to the PWR forum and keep it out of our sports forums. Thanks.

I guess the bright side is that this thread has only caused 2 bigots to pop their heads up ... they'll always be there, and there's no way to reason with them or change their minds: the prejudices and misinformation are just too ingrained ... but the numbers are dwindling. Society evolves slowly, but it does evolve.

As long as homosexuality is a minority group I expect "coming out" to be a deal. However, I expect eventually that "coming out" will be something done much sooner and with more support. Of course when it comes to the player's prowess on the court I expect a time very soon where their sexual openness has absolutely nothing to do with whether they make the team or not.

I enjoy ruining threads by making them about personal attacks and then commenting about how personal attacks make the other person's argument invalid.

It absolutely amazes me that an athlete can literally commit murder and fans will continue to support them yet those same fans can't forgive someone because they like to put a body part somewhere that they don't.

Wow, that was some of the most reactionary, anecdotal bull I've come across in a while. Most adults here seem to have a strong grip on reality (I applaud those); but sometimes you have to step back in amazement and almost shock at the responses an action like this will get out of people.